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ERIC Number: EJ1426615
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Jun
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1362-3613
EISSN: EISSN-1461-7005
Autistic Preschoolers Display Reduced Attention Orientation for Competition but Intact Facilitation from a Parallel Competitor: Eye-Tracking and Behavioral Data
Luodi Yu; Zhiren Wang; Yuebo Fan; Lizhi Ban; Laurent Mottron
Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, v28 n6 p1551-1564 2024
While overt social atypicalities remain a key component of the autistic phenotype, recent reframing of autistic social motivation suggests that these atypicalities do not overlap with their actual level of social engagement. Our study aimed to investigate autistic preschoolers' visual attention toward social situations with unequal interactive load and determine the potential benefits of parallel competition, a form of lateral tutorship. The study observed 26 autistic preschoolers and 20 typically developing children. First, a gaze-contingent procedure measured visual attention toward videos of parallel competitive play, overtly cooperative play, and a non-social object. Then, a motor task and a cognitive task were conducted, both independently and with a parallel competitor to assess the effect of parallel engagement on children's performance. Eye-tracking demonstrated autistic children displayed reduced attention toward competition than typically developing children. However, behavioral data revealed the presence of a parallel competitor significantly and similarly improved performance for autistics and typically developing children. These findings suggest a dissociation between social attention and social facilitation in young autistic children, indicating that atypical visual patterns toward social situations do not necessarily preclude them from benefiting from these situations. As such, activities parallel to the child activities, or lateral tutorship, may represent an addition to traditional joint-interactive activities in early education for autistic children.
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2993
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A